H5296 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE July 26, 2012 

recognition they deserved. Yet today, 

bureaucratic roadblocks continue to 

prevent nearly 4,000 of these aging 

World War II veterans from collecting 

the benefits they are due. 

Five of these gentlemen pictured 

here reside in my district. They range 

in age from 83 to 100 years old. Regrettably, two others recently passed away. 

Many more will pass without ever obtaining the recognition they deserve if 

this body does not act to remove the 

barriers preventing these veterans 

from receiving the benefits they have 

earned. 

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to 

join me in fighting to ensure these honorable World War II veterans are appropriately recognized. 

f 

MOMENT OF SILENCE FOR THE 

1972 ISRAELI OLYMPIANS 

(Mrs. LOWEY asked and was given 

permission to address the House for 1 

minute and to revise and extend her remarks.) 

Mrs. LOWEY. Mr. Speaker, I will use 

my time to observe a minute of silence 

for the Munich 11 who lost their lives 

at the 1972 Olympic Games. 

Thank you. 

f 

EXCESSIVE FEDERAL 

REGULATIONS 

(Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio asked and 

was given permission to address the 

House for 1 minute and to revise and 

extend his remarks.) 

Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, 

take a look at this. Take a look at the 

regulatory red tape that’s strangling 

America’s small businesses, our job 

creators. Every time I travel up and 

down the Ohio River, businesses, both 

large and small, tell me that new regulations and the threat of more are 

keeping them from hiring and expanding. 

Unemployment has been above 8 percent for the past 41 months, and America’s job creators are speaking loud and 

clear that they want certainty. They 

want to grow and expand. And as a 

small business owner myself, I know 

firsthand the destructive burden of excessive regulation. 

Today this House will take an important step toward freeing America’s job 

creators from these excessive regulations. The Red Tape Reduction and 

Small Business Job Creation Act puts a 

stop to President Obama’s unchecked 

power to issue costly and job-killing 

regulations on a whim. I encourage my 

colleagues to stand with me in supporting this legislation that will empower job creators to put America back 

to work. 

f 

RECOGNIZING LONG JUMP 

OLYMPIAN GEORGE KITCHENS, JR. 

(Mr. BARROW asked and was given 

permission to address the House for 1 

minute and to revise and extend his remarks.) 

Mr. BARROW. Mr. Speaker, I rise 

today to recognize George Kitchens, 

Jr., from Augusta, Georgia, who will be 

representing our State and our Nation 

at the London Olympic Games beginning tomorrow. George will be making 

his very first Olympic appearance in 

the men’s long jump. A former Clemson 

Tiger All-American athlete, George 

will be the first member of the Tigers 

long jump team to advance to the 

Olympic Games. 

The American Olympic team is made 

up of 530 men and women. For the first 

time in history, this Olympic team will 

feature more female athletes than 

male athletes. Of the 302 medal events 

at the Olympic Games, the United 

States will be represented at 246. 

We look forward to watching George 

win the gold when the men’s long jump 

team takes the spotlight on Friday, 

August 3. I know I speak for all of my 

colleagues in wishing our American 

Olympic team the best of luck in London. 

f 

b 0910 

CONDEMNING ALEXANDER 

LUKASHENKO 

(Mr. TURNER of New York asked and 

was given permission to address the 

House for 1 minute.) 

Mr. TURNER of New York. Mr. 

Speaker, I rise today to express my 

concern that Alexander Lukashenko, 

president of Belarus, continues to rule 

over Europe’s last dictatorship. Despite 

continued promises of reform, 

Lukashenko continues to deny the people of Belarus their basic freedoms and 

human rights, and runs the country as 

a authoritarian dictatorship. 

In fact, after Mr. Lukashenko’s 

fraudulent election in 2010, 700 political 

opponents and activists were arrested 

during demonstrations. This is just one 

example of the type of persecution the 

people of Belarus have been subjected 

to in these past 18 years. Lukashenko’s 

total disregard for the people he swore 

to protect is appalling, alarming, and 

should not be tolerated. 

I’m here today to draw attention to 

this matter and publicly condemn 

Lukashenko and his regime for their 

continuing oppression of the people of 

Belarus, and offer my support for the 

country’s civilians and pro-democracy 

forces. 

f 

AMERICA NEEDS A FARM BILL 

NOW 

(Mr. WALZ of Minnesota asked and 

was given permission to address the 

House for 1 minute and to revise and 

extend his remarks.) 

Mr. WALZ of Minnesota. Mr. Speaker, I rise today with a very simple message from rural America: we need a 

farm bill, and we need it now. With the 

current farm bill set to expire at the 

end of September, it is crucial that we 

continue to provide certainty to one of 

the few bright spots in our economy 

over the past decade. It is all the more 

crucial to our farmers that we do this 

as they are staring at cracked, driedout soil resulting from one of the worst 

droughts in modern history. 

The newspaper Politico looked back 

50 years—longer than I’ve been alive— 

and found that never before has a farm 

bill been this close to being passed and 

been blocked by House leadership. This 

is absolutely unacceptable. 

Southern Minnesotans can’t afford to 

deal with the uncertainty that follows 

out-of-date policy extensions or lame 

duck sessions. Lame, for sure. 

Don’t kick the can down the road. 

The Senate has passed a bill. The 2012 

farm bill passed out of committee on 

July 12 with a bipartisan vote of 35–11, 

saving $36 billion for the taxpayers. 

My farmers in southern Minnesota 

are up before dawn working until after 

dark. We are leaving at noon today. We 

have 17 days between now and November 6 to work here in Washington. That 

is so unacceptable. No one will agree to 

that. Pass the farm bill. Pass it now. 

f 

U.N. ARMS TREATY VIOLATES U.S. 

CONSTITUTION 

(Mr. POE of Texas asked and was 

given permission to address the House 

for 1 minute.) 

Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, the 

draft of the U.N. Arms Trade Treaty 

called ATT is an attempt by Third 

World countries to control guns worldwide, including personal firearms in 

the United States. Under the section of 

‘‘scope,’’ the treaty indicates that the 

covered items include small arms and 

light weapons. The language is so 

broad that nations are expected to 

track all weapons movements from the 

time they are manufactured until their 

destruction. The language is vague so 

that the treaty could be interpreted to 

restrict the ability of the U.S. to help 

arm its allies, like Taiwan and Israel. 

The treaty presents a clear and 

present danger to the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. It allows the U.N. to steal our liberty. It is 

unbelievable that this administration 

is even considering signing this document. The Senate should never approve 

it if the President signs onto it. The 

President should ignore the treaty because he took an oath to the U.S. Constitution, not to the U.N. charter. 

And that’s just the way it is. 

f 

CONDEMNING ANTI-SAFETY 

LEGISLATION 

(Mr. HIGGINS asked and was given 

permission to address the House for 1 

minute.) 

Mr. HIGGINS. Mr. Speaker, today 

the House will vote on legislation to 

block all new Federal regulations. I’m 

concerned that this bill would damage 

our ability to improve aviation safety, 

which the bipartisan western New York 

delegation has long promoted. 

We fought alongside the families of 

Flight 3407, who lost loved ones in a 


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